The Choices We Make
by amayj
Summary: Sometimes the choices you make can change your whole life. Can change someone else's life. Be careful what you do. Learn from the mistakes you make. Keep your friends close. One shot, alcohol abuse.


**This was just a fun one shot that I felt like doing. Its kinda darkish, but gets lighter, and happier at the end. Let me know what you think at the end. If you like, read my other one shots.**

**Enjoy :)**

**Summary:** Sometimes the choices you make can change your whole life. Can change someone else's life. Be careful what you do. Learn from the mistakes you make.  
Keep your friends close. One shot, alcohol abuse.

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Camp Rock, and unfortunately am not affiliated with any of the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended.

* * *

**The Choices We Make**

You watch as her fingers tighten around the steering wheel. It's the morning after the big 'end-of-school' celebration party, the day before graduation. You can see the tears welling in her eyes, but not falling, as your current boyfriend reminisces the night before. She sniffles slightly and you sigh, wondering which part of the night is rushing through her mind.

_The party started late at night, at Ben's house. He lives away from suburbia, which means you can get as loud as you want. The music is pumping, and everyone seems to be having a great time. You hope it will turn out to be a great night._

You are pulled away from your thoughts by your boyfriend's voice.

"I thought it was a great night, everyone together one last time,"

She replied, in an unusually quiet voice.

"They kept saying things that weren't true. That I hooked up with David, and Matt – but I didn't," her voice stumbled, thick with unshed tears.

"I didn't do any of those things they said,"

You tear your eyes away from her whitened knuckles and turn to look at your boyfriend, Andrew, in the backseat. He has his eyes shut, leaning against the headrest. You quietly clear your throat, hinting at him to stop talking. He must get the message, because he stops.

You turn back to see her knuckles back to normal, and a determined look on her face.

You reach over and stroke her knee in what you hope is a reassuring way, while guilt is building up inside you, burning away at your insides. She blinks, before nodding slightly towards you. You you slowly nod back, holding her knee a little tighter, before retracting your hand. Andrew then takes that opportunity to open his mouth again.

"I didn't think so either. At one point, I saw you running from David, and you were absolutely terrified. You grabbed onto Rochelle, she took one look at your face and dragged you off somewhere. I assume to hide, because Dave was chasing her first, so she hooked up with Pete to get Dave to stop,"

Ah yes, Pete. Who was clearly hyped up on some drug – which turned out to be acid. Poor Rochelle was too drunk to realize what she was doing.

"I remember," she replied, sniffing and raising a hand to wipe her top lip. "She took me away, before bursting into tears herself. And we...talked, I think." You could see that she was struggling to remember, which made you shiver, and feel disgusted – at yourself.

_You're standing by the pool table, watching the game going on. Most of the seniors are blind drunk, staggering around the place. Some of them are playing the Wii that is set up in the corner, others are dancing to the distorted music, so loud you can't even tell what song it is. You move away from the game, to sit on a stool at the bar table, where you can have a snack. As you are slowly eating a few corn chips, someone sits beside you, pouring a small amount of Coke into a yellow cup, before adding a fair bit of vodka. You look at them strangely, thinking that they are either binging or just irresponsible, before they quickly stand and take the cup. They don't walk very far before __**she**__ runs through the door, red faced and sweating, but smiling, obviously having a good time. You can tell that __**she**__ hasn't consumed much alcohol by the way __**she**__ can move easily, and her eyes weren't glazed. __**She**__ took the cup gladly, and you gasped. You were sure that __**she**__ didn't know what was really in that cup. In the next few split seconds you dilemma over going and knocking the cup out of her hand, and facing the consequences if __**she**__ knew what was inside. But surely __**she**__ didn't? In that second of doubt, you watch her down the whole lot, her face screw up as __**she**__ tastes the bitter edge that vodka has. You hear her supposed friend tell her some story about adding lemon to the the Coke and __**she**__, trusting,__ buys it. __**She **__walks back outside. You rush over, and grab the other girls' arm._

"_Why did you do that?" You ask._

"_I just want her to have some fun. Don't worry, she'll be alright," She responds, before pulling out of your grip and walking outside too. She is obviously absolutely sloshed, smashed, wasted. They are such good friends, she would never do something so callous – and illegal! - to hurt her friend in her right mind – could she? You sigh dejectedly, and weigh up going after them. You decide to trust that __**she**__ will be safe, and let them go._

_The next time you see her, __**she**__ is in tears, whispering hurriedly to Rochelle, who has an arm around her, and whisking her away. That is when the guilt first burns. What had happened? What would've you prevented if you were stronger, and stood up for her- stopped this from happening?_

"Why did we have to leave so early anyway? Its 7 in the morning, we could have kept sleeping,"

You roll your eyes at your stupid, whiny, idiot boyfriend.

"I couldn't sleep," she replied.

"And, not to mention, Alec had been taking drugs. No normal person runs around screaming and doing things like that. Didn't you see? As we were leaving, they were calling the cops. I was a bit scared to stay," You say, truthful, but also to try and avert the question of why she couldn't sleep. You feel awful, but don't know how to approach this situation – or if you even should..

Most of the drive is quiet. Truth be told, you shouldn't have allowed her to drive at all, but you can see how desperately she just wants to get away from everyone, back to the comfort of her own bed. You hear her softly singing along to the radio, but you don't recognise the song. It isn't long before she drops you both home, plastering a semi fake smile on her face. You thank her profusely, and apologise in your mind for what you allowed to happen. You watch her car pull away from the curb, and turn around, driving back to her house, about a five minute drive. You enter the front door, where you run into your parents, who haven't yet left for work. They ask how the party was, and you respond with one or two words, before telling them you're tired. You have a quick shower to freshen up slightly before climbing into your soft, warm bed. You hope to find peace, or comfort there, but you still feel terrible about what happened. What you allowed to pass. That much alcohol, in one hit, by someone who doesn't usually drink – she would not have had much control of her actions. When you finally fall asleep, you dream terrible dreams about what could've happened, because you weren't able to tell her 'no'. After waking up, not even a little bit refreshed from many nightmares, you find you can't even face closing your eyes. Instead, you yearn for advice, from a non-judgmental stranger. So you turn on your computer, waiting patiently for it to load, before opening a search engine, and searching for answers. You type in "drink spiking" and pick a couple of the options available. Most of the sites are about alerting the police, but nothing about knowing about a drink spiking, and whether to tell the person or not. You always assumed that if you ever got into this situation, you would know what to do, but you never expected that you would get into this position. In the words of Taylor Swift – This isn't Hollywood, this is a small town. Things like this don't happen here, but it has, and you don't know what to do. You think that it's probably best to tell her, but you are so disgusted with yourself, you don't trust your own judgment. So instead of checking out more websites, you randomly pick one of the helplines available. You slowly dial the number of the consultant in your area, and they pick up after 3 rings. You thank your lucky stars you weren't put on hold. You speak to a man named Jeff, who has had his drink spiked once before, but with drugs, and had to be taken to the hospital to have his stomach pumped. He understands even though you don't, reassuring you that your brain function was slower because you had consumed alcohol that night. He also strongly recommended you tell her what had happened, because she could inform the police and press charges. Even though you know she probably won't, for the fear that others may find out, you thank the operator, and decide to try your best to convince her to get help.

You will tell her as soon as you can after graduation.

*

It is your graduating day. It should be one of the best days of your life. But you are worried, turned in your seat, watching for her to arrive. Ten minutes before the ceremony begins you begin to wonder if she will even turn up. A few minutes after you silently panic, she quietly enters before sitting with the girls whom you would've called her friends. They were all smiling, relieved, as though they even thought she wasn't coming. You would smirk, knowing that they might now feel some consequences of their actions, but this isn't an "I told you so" situation. You think she still is very upset, but is masking it. You see that the sparkle in her eye is replaced with sadness. How she is very unusually quite, often looking to Rochelle for support. You figure Rochelle knows what happens, as she is able to reassure her quickly. Another friend, Emily, quickly enters as the ceremony starts, a girl who didn't make it to the party. They hug, and you smile, knowing that at least she has one true friend. The ceremony passes slowly, as too many people stand up to give speeches. Soon, the grade is lining up to receive their graduation certificates. You catch her eye, and she smiles genuinely at you, before laughing at something someone else says. The laugh is only slightly forced, which you sigh slightly at.

Soon, the ceremony is over.

Everyone is slightly on edge, sensing the change and you can tell it worries the whole grade. She has always been a bubbly, happy girl. She always had something nice to say and anyone who was particularly mean was regarded as a downright douche-nozzle. Even though she has never been popular, or really fitted in very well, mostly everyone has respected her, even if they were merely acquaintance.

You watch as she poses for photos with her family, and her friends. She told you months beforehand that she would be bawling at graduation, but she is one of the few girls who does not shed a single tear, have a single frown on her face. She looks happy, and strong. Ready to face anything the world throws at her. She doesn't stay very long, leaving with her family, laughing with them, a true smile on her face. You beam, proud at how fast she was able to overcome whatever hardship befell her.

But you still know you have to tell her soon, but you can't bring yourself to put a damper on graduation. You have her contact details, and know you can get in contact soon.

However, it isn't long before you get distracted. Finishing school is like entering a whole new life of freedom. You break it off with Andrew – you knew it wasn't going to last after school. You begin working full time, and it isn't long before you forget the whole ordeal.

When you finally remember, just over two months later, you feel terrible. And extremely selfish. And now you don't know if you want to tell her about it. You don't want to dig at old wounds.

However, your conscience wins over, and you send her a text message about wanting to catch up. She agrees with you, and tells you that she misses you very much.

You don't plan anything then, giving her some space. A little over a week later, you contact her again, this time through facebook, expressing that you'd like to catch up.

Again, she agrees, but explains that she is away visiting family for the rest of the week. You make plans to meet up with her the following Wednesday, when you have the day off work. She agrees, and you nervously wait the week out, planning the conversation in your head, making sure you can answer as much as you can. You debate whether or not to tell her who the culprit is, but decide you must, for it would be a crime to let her continue being friends with someone who obviously doesn't care for her.

Wednesday comes faster than you would like, and suddenly, you find yourself facing her smiling face across a cafe booth. It's now or never.

* * *

It's been five years since you met her in the cafe. Five years since you told her what Tess did to her drink, when she told you how Dave had felt her up, before trying to sexually assault her. He almost succeeded because she had limited control of her body. She didn't do anything with him, thankfully because she was able to pull herself away. She told you that something inside her brain woke up. It terrified her to not be in control of herself like that. She could still feel his hands on her when she went to sleep the morning after.

She was able to forgive herself, and move on, but never forget.

However, when the full story was revealed, you gave her a means of escape, and she was able to forget what happened.

You were able to forgive yourself, once Caitlyn told you that she didn't blame you for what had come to pass.

Caitlyn was horrified at what Tess, her supposed best friend had done. She severed all connections and ties to her, never contacting her again. You and her became the closest of friends, sisters, cruelly kept biologically apart by fate.

When Caitlyn left the cafe on that fateful day, she bumped into Nate Gray.

Three years later, she became Caitlyn Gray, you standing by her side as her maid of honor. A year later, she stood by as your matron of honor, as you became Mitchie Gray, marrying Nate's brother Shane, making you and Caitlyn the sisters' you were always supposed to be.

You both haven't really kept in contact with anyone else since high school. But, you did run into Tess at the mall last week with Shane, where she broke down and bitterly cried about what she had done, but never showing any sign of remorse. She merely missed Caitlyn for the benefits that she got – the free cruises every holiday (Caitlyn's parents owned a cruise ship). You told her that Peter Pan and Wendy turned out fine, which earned you a high five from a jubilant Caitlyn later.

You told Tess that you hoped that she learned from her mistake, and was a better person for it. However you saw her checking Shane out, giving him seductive looks, and you knew in your heart that she would always be the bitter, selfish person you always believed her to be. You turned on your heel and walked away, Shane telling you how turned on his was by your feisty side. You smirked up at him, and he kissed you. When he pulled away, he told you it was a show for Tess. You laughed lightly, and went home, glad that everything had turned out just perfect.

Life is full of mistakes. But if you don't make them, you never learn from them.

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